Hurricane Watch - DK2 (38 page)

”All right, Mark.” Dar leaned against the wall, crossing her ankles and taking the weight off her knee. ”Can you see them?”

Clicking. ”No. No, wait.” More clicking. ”Ah, yep, there they are.”

Dar closed her eyes in utter relief. ”All of them?”

”Wait, I’m getting Unicenter booted,” the MIS chief muttered.

”Hang on. Hang on, okay, yeah,” he confirmed. ”I’m seeing all the gateways and both backbones.” A beat. ”Wow, tremendous work, boss, that kicks ass.”

Dar let her head rest against the wall. ”I had a lot of help,” she muttered. ”Okay, now I’m going to boot the fiber hub.” She reached over and flipped a switch.

Across the room bodies were slumped on the carpet or leaning against the far walls, and the door kept opening fitfully, letting in cold, damp air.

”I don’t see it,” Mark’s voice cut through her exhaustion.

”Shit.” Dar shoved her body off the wall and examined the piece of equipment. ”I don’t, it’s connected, let me...”

”Did you set the IP?” Mark asked, gently.

Dar thought about it. ”I don’t remember.” She glanced up as Kerry came over. ”Mark sees the backbones and the routers, but not this box.

Did we program it?”

Kerry brought the laptop over and connected it, then ran through a few screens. ”Nope.” She typed in a few commands, then reset the unit.

”Try now.”

Mark clicked a bit, then grunted. ”Got it.” He entered several commands rapidly. ”Needs the secondary table though. Hang on, I’m in there. I can download it from here. Wait, okay.” He sighed. ”Got it, got it. You’re going to have to IPL the mainframes, though.”

Dar and Kerry exchanged glances. ”What?” Dar asked. ”I thought they were up?”

”They are,” Mark said. ”But the ports shut down when you don’t have activity after a certain point. It’s a bug or something. You need to reset them.”

Dar let out an explosive breath. ”Son of a fucking bitch. Mark, we can’t get in there,” she told him. ”Can’t you remote IPL?”

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”Has to be a hardware reset,” the MIS chief responded. ”God, Dar.

I’m sorry. I knew that in the back of my head, I should have told you before. I didn’t realize...”

No.
Dar let her head smack against the wall and she cursed softly under her breath.

Kerry chewed her lip in thought, watching her lover anxiously.

”What if we cut the building generator off and on?” she asked suddenly.

”It’s outside.”

Dar stared at her, then dropped the phone onto the fiber rack and took hold of Kerry, kissing her soundly in full view of the room. ”I love you.” She patted Kerry’s cheek, as she headed past her towards the door.Kerry stood rooted in place, stunned beyond speech. She had her back to everyone and could almost feel the eyes beating against the back of her head. Finally, she picked up the cell phone and cleared her throat.

”Um, hi.”

Mark also cleared his throat. ”Hi,” he responded. ”Guess she liked that idea, huh?”

”Uh, yeah.” Kerry winced as she slowly turned, relieved to see most of the techs still passed out and paying no attention to her. There were a handful of bemused faces, though, and she mustered a weak smile for them. ”I just hope it works.”

”Hey, that sure beats Q bucks,” one tech laughed. ”I think I’ll move down to Miami, they got a better bonus plan.” A round of tired laughter followed.

Kerry scrubbed a hand across her reddening face and sighed. ”I’m gonna kill her for that,” she muttered, then glanced up as Dar reentered the building.

”All right folks, we’ve got fifteen minutes, and we’ll know if this has all been worth it,” Dar announced. ”And if it is, or isn’t, I’d like to say thanks to all of you who hung in there. I know we asked a lot.”

A weary silence fell over them and everyone settled in to watch the routers, whose traffic LEDS were dark. Dar walked over to where Kerry was standing and slid down the wall, clasping her hands lightly in front of her.

Waiting.

Kerry sat down next to her and fiddled with the phone, sitting cross legged and resting her elbows on her knees.

Fifteen minutes passed and there was no change in the lights. Dar closed her eyes and let her head drop in defeat, hardly feeling Kerry’s hand on her arm. Of all the times to fail, she had to pick this one. She refused to hear the disappointed murmur that echoed around the ill lit room, as the tired waves finally crashed over her.

”It was a damn good try.” Kerry rested her head against Dar’s shoulder.

”Not good enough,” came the whispered reply.

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Kerry moved closer, accidentally jerking the power plug of the fiber hub from the wall. “Oh, crap.” She shoved it back in with an annoyed grimace. ”For all the good that’ll do,” she muttered, turning her attention to her lover. ”Hey, c’mon, no one could have done any more, Dar.””Hey!” A tinny voice distracted her, and she lifted the phone.

”What is it, Mark? It didn’t work,” Kerry admitted.

”Bullshit. Yes it did!” The MIS chief yelled. ”I’m getting packets!”

Dar’s head jerked up on hearing that and they both stared at the router racks, where LEDS were coming alive in an electronic dance.

”Son of a bitch.”

Yells were now coming from the techs, who were pointing at the routers.

”Wow!” Kerry let out a surprised and delighted laugh. ”I guess it just took a few minutes longer.”

”No.” Dar looked up at the hub over her head. ”You did it. You reset the optics hub.” She grabbed Kerry and hugged her. ”You did it!”

Dumbfounded, Kerry stared at her. ”I did it?” She jerked around and looked at the plug. ”It was an accident!”

”Waaahoo!” Mark yodeled through the phone. ”Infriggingcredible, Dar! Give that woman a kiss for me.”

Blue eyes now alive with mischief fastened on Kerry's face. ”Oh, I think I can do that.” She stood up and pulled Kerry up with her, as a round of tired cheers went up around the room.

”Uh, Dar?” Kerry whispered frantically. ”Um, you know, I love when you kiss me. I really, really do, but um, could we just kinda...” She jerked her head in the direction of the watching technicians. ”I feel like a video game.”

Dar chuckled. ”All right,” she relented, draping an arm over Kerry’s shoulder instead, and walking towards the now excitedly talking group. She took the phone from Kerry. ”So, everything coming online?”

”Oh, yes.” Mark chuckled. ”Oh wait, there’s the hotline, figures, sun just started coming up.” He rustled around. ”MIS Ops, Polenti.” A pause. ”Hmm? Oh, yeah, we’re up, no problem.” Another pause. ”Yep, that too. The whole network’s online.” A longer pause. ”Yeah, I’ve got her on the other line. Wh...ok...I'’ll relay that, thanks.” He hung up.

”Hey Dar?”

”Yeah?” Dar replied, accepting the cries of congratulations from the crowd.

”Alastair said to tell you he slept like a baby,” the MIS chief related.

”He said you’d understand.”

She let a brief, humorless smile cross her face. ”Yeah, I understand,” she replied. ”All right, let me get off this thing. I’m going to make sure this is stable, then go get some sleep.” The thought of a warm bed and snuggling with Kerry was suddenly overwhelmingly 206

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attractive. ”Later.” She hung up and tucked the phone into her pocket.

Fresh staff was entering the building, cautiously peering around the doorframe until they spotted familiar faces. A supervisor was busy making a schedule, and two other new faces were pulling out monitoring consoles from boxes and setting them up. ”We did it,” Dar stated, in a wondering tone. ”I don’t believe it.”

Kerry exhaled. ”We sure did,” she confirmed.

They both looked up as someone called out Dar’s name. A man trotted towards them, pulling up as he reached their sides.

”Ms. Roberts?” he asked. ”There are some people outside. I think it’s the environmental people. They want to see you.”

Dar went very still. ”Same people as last night?” she asked cautiously.

He nodded. ”Yeah, that same doctor, but she said her boss is here, wants to talk to you.” He made a face. ”They were kinda rude about it,”

he added, then turned as someone called him, and moved off.

Kerry looked up at Dar’s face, seeing the confusion and reluctance there. ”You want me to take care of this?” she asked bluntly.

Pale blue eyes flicked to hers. ”Thanks, but, um, I’d better go,” Dar told her heavily. ”You wait here. It shouldn’t take long, since I don’t really care when they clear the other building now, as long as we keep the generators going.”

Kerry didn’t back off. ”Sure you don’t want company?” She had no idea what was spooking Dar so badly, but she was damned if she wasn’t going to find out. ”Two of them, only fair if there are two of us.”

Dar hesitated. ”Her boss and I have a history,” she finally admitted.

”I gathered,” Kerry answered quietly. ”That was the old history, right?”

A nod. ”Yes.”

”Dar, it’s been a really long night. You’re tired, let me go take care of them for you,” Kerry pleaded gently, seeing the stark indecision in Dar's eyes. ”Or at least let me come, too.”

She gave in. ”All right.” Dar ran a hand through her hair. ”Let’s get it over with, I want to get out of here.” She picked up Kerry’s duffel, and slung it over her shoulder. ”We can just go after that.”

They walked out, side by side, into a gray drizzle.

IT WAS ALMOST like her stomach was twisting into knots. Kerry paced alongside her boss, watching the jaw muscles bunch and relax on the side of her face as they moved around to where the networking office was. Two figures were standing under the overhang out of the rain, and Kerry almost felt Dar bristle as she spotted them.

This was potentially very ugly, she realized, studying the two people. One was Dr. Simmonds, she knew. The other, a taller, stockier
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woman with sun streaked chestnut hair was standing quietly, watching Dar like a hawk as they approached. Kerry had an immediate, very visceral desire to kick her in the shins, and had to wonder about her newly found physical nature.

”Hey, Dar!” A voice interrupted them, and they stopped, turning to let a jogging figure catch up. It was the Bellsouth regional manager, who held a hand out to Dar as he came up to them. ”Hear it worked, congratulations!”

Dar mustered a smile, and took his hand. ”You made it happen,”

she amiably told him. ”You guys really came through for us, don’t think I’ll forget that.”

They were close enough for the two women to overhear, Kerry realized, and she saw their faces fall. A grin worked its way onto her face. ”Yes, it really was great working with you,” she added, shaking his hand as well. ”Your techs were wonderful. They got us back up with no problem.” She made sure her voice was a little louder than necessary.

”Well, thanks.” he grinned. ”Can I treat you ladies to an old fashioned country breakfast?”

Dar regretfully declined. ”We’ve got things to take care of, but thanks for the offer.” She nodded towards the waiting women. ”I think the scientists have something to tell us.”

”Right, well, you take care.” He waved, then trotted off, hailing one of the techs nearby.

”You know, Dar, ” Kerry fell into step beside her as they resumed their stroll. ”If I didn’t know better. I’d say those people were disappointed to hear things worked out.” Her eyes flicked to their targets.

”Mm,” Dar murmured. ”You could be right.” She swallowed to get the cotton out of her mouth, and tried to ignore the pounding of her heartbeat, very aware of Shari’s eyes on her. She summoned her coldest, fiercest outer persona, and wrestled it into place.

”Dar?” Kerry's voice dropped to a low murmur.

”Hmm?” She ducked her head a little, nervously clenching and unclenching her fists.

”I love you.”

Dar blinked, then looked up as they came even with the two women.
Shari who?
”You needed to speak with me?” she asked amiably, feeling the dread fall away, nudged aside by the living, breathing acknowledgement that Shari had been wrong, all those years ago. Her eyes met her old lover’s, and she gave her a small nod of acknowledgement. ”Hello, Shari.”

”Dar,” the woman answered, in a low, musical voice. Her eyes flicked to Kerry’s face, then an eyebrow rose.

”Sorry.” Dar felt a smile edging her lips. ”This is my associate, Kerrison Stuart. Kerry, this is Shari Englewood. ”

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”Pleased to meet you,” Kerry responded politely, extending a hand, and returning the firm grip with one of her own.

An awkward silence fell. ”Would you two please excuse us,” Shari finally said. ”I’d like to speak with Ms. Roberts in private.”

Dr. Simmonds ducked away immediately, seemingly glad to get out of the situation, but Kerry paused for a long moment, gazing at the chestnut haired woman steadily before she took the duffle from Dar and gave her boss a quick grin. ”See you at the car.”

Dar half turned her face, and winked at her. ”Won’t be long.” She watched Kerry stride off towards the vehicle, ducking her head against the still falling rain. Then she turned back and folded her arms over her chest.And waited. The cool gray eyes studied her, and she returned the look without flinching, keeping her expression noncommittal. Shari hadn’t changed much, save that she’d gotten a bit heavier, and her face had taken on a colder, more predatory expression. She was, Dar acknowledged, still very attractive, and the look of those familiar eyes brought up old and painful memories she tried to shove back down.

”You haven’t changed much,” Shari finally said. ”You still running around doing their dirty work?”

Dar refused to take offense. ”Sure,” she drawled. ”Only now they pay me more to do it, and I’ve got an office in the penthouse.” It gave her quite a bit of satisfaction to say that, and a tiny smirk caught the edge of her lip as the jibe registered. ”And incidentally, if the chemical team finds no trace of your dangerous substance, you’ll find the bill for this sitting on your desk.”

”Oh, they’ll find it,” she responded. ”I wouldn’t have bothered making that up. I was just so happy to hear it was going to screw you up, that I had to come see for myself.” Her eyes wandered over Dar’s body. ”But you pulled the fucking rabbit out of your ass again, didn’t you?” She snorted. ”That sucks, Dar. I should have come over last night, when Anne told me you were tearing your hair out.”